


give me something real

by rocketshiptospace



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: 5 Times, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Teachers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-14 00:35:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5722948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocketshiptospace/pseuds/rocketshiptospace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Come on, Luke. Time to say goodbye to the warmth and comfort of your bed and hello to the cold harsh reality of life.” Ashton says a few minutes later, when he’s clothed and ready to go downstairs.</p>
<p>Luke groans and buries his head back into the pillow. “Real motivating words. Can see why you decided to become a teacher. You’re a true inspiration.” His words are muffled by the fabric and Ashton lets out a breathy laugh.</p>
<p>“Get out of bed, Mr. Hemmings. Your students are counting on you.” Ashton tugs at the comforter and Luke whines.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I think the students will be very disappointed when they find out the Math teacher didn’t show up. Like ‘Oh no, we don’t have math today, what a <i>tragedy</i>’.”</p>
<p>or, the five times luke and ashton hid their relationship, and the one time they didn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	give me something real

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cherryraindrops](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherryraindrops/gifts).



> i literally starting writing this fic in october 2014. im not even kidding it has really been that long oh my god (i abbandoned it for like a solid year before finally picking it up again a month ago haha)
> 
> ANYWAY this fic is for emi, because true friendship never really fades, and i yelled at her about this fic a lot when i first started writing this, and just because i think she's a lovely wonderful person
> 
> 5+1 fic because i am a sucker for those lmao

1.

Luke wakes up that morning because Ashton’s alarm clock is blaring ‘Wannabe’ by the Spice girls on full volume. He rolls over and buries his face in his pillow, silently cursing Ashton for his strange choice in wake-up songs. This week it’s apparently ‘Wannabe’, but last week they woke up five days in a row to ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, which was truly an experience Luke would not like to relive. He’d had the song stuck in his head for _days_.

Ashton groans and reaches for his phone on the nightstand, turning off the alarm right as Mel B is about to tell them what she really, really wants. Luke takes that as his cue to go back to sleep and curls himself into the blankets, snuggling his face into the pillow. He knows he has about fifteen minutes before Ashton will start trying to drag him out of bed and he’s going to spend those fifteen minutes as comfortable as he possible can.

Luke feels the bed move next to him, indicating that Ashton’s getting out of bed. Before he does he leans over to press a kiss to the back of Luke’s head, lingering for a second. Luke makes a content noise and turns around so he can watch Ashton putter through the room as he gets dressed. He feels his eyes slipping shut again when Ashton starts humming an unidentifiable tune under his breath.

“Come on, Luke. Time to say goodbye to the warmth and comfort of your bed and hello to the cold harsh reality of life.” Ashton says a few minutes later, when he’s clothed and ready to go downstairs.

Luke groans and buries his head back into the pillow. “Real motivating words. Can see why you decided to become a teacher. You’re a true inspiration.” His words are muffled by the fabric and Ashton lets out a breathy laugh.

“Get out of bed, Mr. Hemmings. Your students are counting on you.” Ashton tugs at the comforter and Luke whines.

“Yeah, I think the students will be very disappointed when they find out the _Math teacher_ didn’t show up. Like ‘Oh no, we don’t have math today, what a _tragedy_ ’.”

Ashton laughs again, full out this time, and it’s been years, _years_ since Luke first heard that laugh but it still makes his heart flutter. There’s just something about Ashton’s laugh that makes him feel warm and safe and loved. He isn’t the only one who feels that way, he knows that. Ashton just kind of has that effect on people, has the ability to make them feel like they matter. Luke thinks that’s what makes him such a good teacher.

When Luke still adamantly refuses to get out of the soft, warm comfort of his blanket nest, Ashton sighs and climbs back on the bed, straddling Luke’s waist. “Come on, babe. Three more days and it’ll be weekend, you can do all the sleeping in the world then.” Ashton leans down to press a soft kiss to Luke’s nose and Luke grumbles.

“But that is like _three days_ away. I want to sleep _now_.” He leans up to press a kiss to Ashton’s lip, but Ashton quickly pulls away, sitting back up again.

“Oh no, I don’t think so. Not until you’ve brushed your teeth.” And with that Ashton climbs off him and ignores Luke’s whines as he walks out of the room.

Luke sighs, realizing he’s lost this round of wake-up shenanigans (he always does), and disentangles himself form the covers, shivering when the cold air hits his body. He shuffles into the bathroom to get ready, stretching his tired limbs as he goes. It’s pretty much their morning routine at this point, Ashton getting out of bed the minute the alarm clock goes off and Luke refusing to extract himself from the warm blanket nest he has created for himself over night. It’s only been two years of them living together, but Luke has already forgotten how he ever got out of bed before he met Ashton.

Actually getting out of bed at a decent time isn’t the only thing Ashton’s presence in his life has granted him, and that always becomes the most clear when he walks into the bathroom. The place is spotless, no puddles on the floor, and everything is neatly organized. Luke remembers when back when he still lived at home, when his family would always jokingly call him ‘the tornado’, mostly for his tendency of leaving the bathroom a mess after he showered.

It still happens, of course it does, because old habits die hard and Luke still doesn’t really know how he manages to turn the bathroom into a waterpark every time he takes a shower, so it’s not like there’s much he can do about it. But he cleans it up now, leaves it as neatly as possible, because they’re in this together, him and Ashton, and he can’t let Ashton do all the work. They’re a team now.

Luke brushes his teeth, gets dressed, and makes the bed. By the time he gets downstairs he finds Ashton standing in the kitchen making pancakes. His back is to the door, and he’s softly humming some generic pop song as he wiggles his hips to the beat. It looks adorable. “Pancakes? On as Wednesday? Are we celebrating something?” Luke asks, as he wraps his arms around Ashton’s waist and leans his head over his shoulder, abruptly stopping Ashton mid song.

His boyfriend shrugs lightly, careful not to slam his shoulder against Luke’s chin. “Thought you could use it. You were being particularly reluctant to get out of bed this morning.”

Luke smiles softly, untangling himself from Ashton so he can get the coffee machine going and set the table. “I love you so much.”

“You only love me for my pancakes.” Ashton says as he slides a pancake on one of the plates Luke’s just placed on the counter.

Luke grabs two mugs form the overhead cabinet and lets out a short laugh. “I can’t deny that’s one of the reasons. You make exceptionally good pancakes.” He places the mugs next to the coffee maker before sliding back over to Ashton, nuzzling into his neck as the older boy pours new pancake batter in the pan.

Luke stays there for a while, wrapped around Ashton as he softly hums along to the radio and expertly flips pancakes. Luke knows Ashton’s just doing it to show off and he also knows it took Ashton three years of making pancakes every Sunday before he was able to do it as well as he does now, but Luke still indulges his boyfriend by making encouraging noises into the nape of his neck.

“Luke? Luke, babe, you’re going to have to let me go now.” Ashton eventually murmurs, leaning his head back a bit. Luke makes a soft whining noise and tightens his hold on Ashton. “Luke, the pancakes are done, we have to eat now or we’ll be late for school.”

Luke whines again, louder this time, but finally releases Ashton from his grip and shuffles over to the coffee machine, that’s finished now, to pour them both a mug. He ads sugar and milk to his own and takes the mugs to the table, where Ashton’s already sitting, plate filled with pancakes placed in the middle.

Luke places Ashton’s mug down and presses a kiss to his boyfriend’s head before sitting down himself and grabbing a pancake. He almost immediately drops the pancake again with a shout of “Fuck! That’s hot!” and Ashton fondly shakes his head.

“Always so impatient.”

Luke glares at him. “I can’t help it that I am naturally drawn to your pancakes.”

“See, you only love me for my pancakes.”

“Shut up.”

\--

Luke’s running a bit late. Like, he’s not actually late, because normally he likes getting to school really early so he can look through the topics he wants to discuss for the class that day, fight with the IWB for a while (ever since their school got them two years ago Luke has been _struggling_. It’s just, he’s not very technical and those things are always confusing and never do what he wants them to do.) and maybe write some math problems on the board (when he eventually gets it to work). But today he’s later than he normally is because his breakfast with Ashton lasted a bit longer (mostly his own fault) and then he realized he hadn’t actually packed his bag yet. This meant he had to leave the house in a rush, quickly pressing a kiss to Ashton’s forehead with a “see you later!”

He’s just unpacked his bag now and is trying to turn on the IWB (for some reason the thing is telling him his password is wrong even though he _knows_ he entered the right one), when someone knocks on the door. Luke frowns, because it’s still fifteen minutes till class starts and none of his students are ever this early. Before he can ask who it is, however, the door is already swung open to reveal a grinning Ashton.

Luke raises an eyebrow in his direction, a silent question as to what Ashton is doing in Luke’s classroom. Normally they try and stay away from each other as much as possible in school in fear of giving away that they’re a little more than just coworkers.

“Good morning, Mr. Hemmings,” Ashton says, entering the classroom and slowly walking over to Luke’s desk, smiling brightly. “It seems you’ve forgotten something at home this morning.”

Luke frowns, because he’s pretty sure he brought everything. His schoolbooks, his lunch, his notebook, and his- _oh_.

Ashton’s standing in front of him now, wide grin on his face, holding up his calculator. “I can’t believe you actually forgot this. Normally you’re practically glued to that thing.”

It’s true, normally Luke _always_ has at least some sort of calculator on him. There’s just something calming about having a device with you that’s pretty much always right, a bit of certainty in his life. Sometimes, when things feel a bit off, he finds himself punching in random calculations, just to see his calculator give him the correct answer every single time. It gives him a little bit of peace.

It seems, however, that he forgot the one he always uses at school this morning when he was leaving in a rush.

“I found it on your nightstand when I went to grab my bag. Seriously Hemmings, I have no idea what you would do without me.”

Luke grins, he’s pretty sure he wouldn’t know what to do without Ashton either. “Well, apparently I’d be incredibly calculator-less.” He reaches for the device in Ashton’s hand, but Ashton pulls it back before Luke as much as touches it, with a smug grin on his face. Luke frowns at him.

“Oh no, I deserve something in return for bringing you your most prized possession,” Ashton says, keeping the calculator out of Luke’s reach. Which I actually pretty impressive, seeing Ashton is actually shorter than Luke. Not much, but still.

Luke sighs, “What do you want?” He’s known Ashton long enough to know he’s incredibly stubborn and persistent and will get what he wants no matter what. It’s a lot easier to give in then to fight it, Luke’s learned.

The smug grin on Ashton’s face intensifies at his small victory. “A kiss.”

Luke’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Usually, they don’t do this. They don’t show PDA on school grounds, it’s the first thing they decided on when they started their relationship. Even before or after actual school hours, it was safer to not engage in any personal contact, just in case someone found out. “Ashton,” Luke says. It’s not really a sentence, but the tone he uses, along with the facial expression, make it very clear what he means.

Ashton scoffs. “Oh, please. It’s at least another five minutes before your students start showing up. There is literally no one here. It’s just a quick kiss, nothing more. Please? I think I deserve it after all I went through to bring you this thing.”

Ashton was referring to the fact that _his_ classroom was right next to the school’s entry, while Luke’s classroom was all the way in the back on the second floor. Which meant that visiting Luke’s classroom involved walking up a bunch of stairs and through what almost appeared to be a never ending hallway. Ashton never failed to bring up that fact whenever he visited Luke’s classroom. Which admittedly, was not very often.

Luke sighs in defeat. “Fine. But just a quick kiss.” With that he grabs the front of Ashton’s shirt and pulls him forward, causing Ashton to let out a surprised yelp, one that gets muffled when their mouths crash together. It was probably meant to be a soft an simple kiss, but because of the force Luke put behind it, it quickly turns a little bit more rough. Luke’s about to pry Ashton’s lips apart and slip his tongue in, when they suddenly hear voices in the hallway. Student’s voices. Luke’s eyes widen and he quickly pulls away from Ashton, stumbling back a bit in the process and accidentally slamming into his own desk.

Ashton sends him a confused look (one that quickly changed to one of worry when he saw the pained look on Luke’s face), but then one of the students let out a loud high pitched laugh and suddenly he seems to catch on to what is happening. He quickly straightens his shirt and fixes his hair before stepping back from Luke even more, right as the door swings open and a group of girls pile into the room.

“Good morning Mr. Hemmings! Good morning Mr. Irwin!”

“Good morning.” Both teachers mumble back while the girls all take a seat and start unpacking their bags, chatting loudly. Luke and Ashton share a look, one that probably reads something along the lines of ‘shit that was close’, before Ashton places the calculator on Luke’s desk and quickly walks out of the classroom. “See you calcu _later_ , Hemming!” He shouts over his shoulder. Luke suppresses the urge to smile. Ashton always uses math related puns when he tries to convince Luke everything is fine. It’s weirdly reassuring.

Luke stares at the door Ashton’s disappeared through for a while, thinking about how close that had been. If he hadn’t heard the footsteps, if one of those girls wouldn’t have laughed, they would’ve been caught. He would’ve been caught making out with one of his coworkers, his _male_ coworker, and god knows what would’ve happened then. He knows the school is pretty chill when it comes to the LGBTQA community -he’s been openly bisexual for years now and he’s never been bullied for it- but there’s a difference between being openly out and openly _making_ out. Plus, no one in the school even knows about him and Ashton and he’s not so sure if he wants everyone to find out just yet.

More students trickle in and Luke shakes himself from his thoughts so he can focus on his class.

\--

2.

During lunch Luke goes to find Ashton to, well, he’s not really sure what he’s going to do. He just knows there’s been a buzzing under his skin, this insistent need to get his hands on Ashton that he usually manages to suppress during school. It’s just, initially he was pretty worried about the kiss and how they had almost been caught, but after thinking about it for a while, he realizes it was actually kind of _hot_. The fact that they kissed _in his classroom_ this morning, a place anyone can just walk in and see them and actually _got away with it_ (never mind the fact they almost got caught) kind of makes him want to do it again.

So that’s why, the minute he spots Ashton walking into the direction of the staff room, he grabs his arm and drags him into the nearest empty space he can find, without anyone seeing them.

It turns out to be a janitors closet. How incredibly cliché.

Ashton seems to think so too. “Luke, please tell me you did not drag me in here to make out with me. I mean, I know we technically still go to High School, but we are not _actually_ sixteen.” The closet is a bit dark, since both of them have failed to find the light switch when they first stumbled in, which means the only light in the room is the small strip of light filtering through from under the door. It’s enough to see that half annoyed, half fond smile on Ashton’s face, though.

Luke simply grins at Ashton, and pulls him closer by his belt loops, so their chests are pressed together. His hands find its way to Ashton’s cheek and he simply rests it there, unmoving.

Ashton sighs. “You are a child, honestly.” He does not make any more to change their current position, though, actually leans into Luke’s hand a bit. “I thought you were against PDA on the work floor?”

Luke smiles mischievously. “Yes, I am very against _Public_ displays of affection. Displays of affection in a janitors closet, however, I have no problem with.” Luke leans closer, so Ashton’s now pressed against the wall, his breath ghosting over the shell of Ashton’s ear.

Ashton huffs. “What if we get caught?” There’s no heat, no real fear behind the words, though, and Luke knows he’s already won. At this point Ashton’s probably just saying these things to annoy him. He can tell by the way Ashton’s still not moving away, and opting instead for placing his hands on Luke’s hips instead.

So Luke doesn’t respond to his question, just presses his lips against the side of Ashton’s neck as his hand slip under his shirt so they come to rest on Ashton’s side, feeling the slight shift of muscles as Ashton presses a bit closer to him. “This is so _inappropriate_.”

Luke groans against Ashton’s neck, annoyed. “For god’s sake, Ashton, can you shut up for like, five seconds?”

Suddenly moving at lightning speed, flipping them around so now Luke’s the one pressed against the wall, his knee sliding between Luke’s legs and his hands grabbing at Luke’s shirt. He leans his face unbearably close to Luke’s, his words ghosting over Luke’s cheek. “Make me.”

That’s all Luke needed to hear, really. He immediately surges forward to press his mouth against Ashton and reaches up to tangle his hands in Ashton’s hair. He pulls softly at the strands, making Ashton sigh into his mouth.

The thing is, Ashton and Luke have been together for quite some time now, which also means they’ve been kissing for quite some time. Luke knows Ashton, knows how to tease Ashton, knows how to get that soft little moan to slip past his lips, knows how to get Ashton begging for more.

But he also knows how to _love_ Ashton. He knows how to kiss Ashton like he means it, like Ashton is the only person in the world that matters to him. And despite the rather heated situation they’re currently in (the dark environment, Luke’s hands under Ashton’s shirt, Ashton’s hand inching dangerously close towards the button of Luke’s jeans), it’s not about that. It’s just, it’s more a reminder that they’re here, in this, always.

Because Luke knows how hard it is, especially for Ashton. Ashton is not a person who’s very good at hiding things or lying, and that’s basically what he’s doing with Luke right now. They’re hiding themselves from a pretty big part in both of their lives- their job. When this whole thing started, they both agreed it was better to keep a secret, but Luke knows it’s eating away at Ashton.

So this, right now, in the janitors closer, is more like some sort of promise, really, than the heavy make out session it looks like. It’s a promise that one day, they don’t have to hide anymore. That one day they can come to school together and they can leave together and nobody’s going to talk because there is nothing to talk about.

Luke presses against Ashton with a little bit more force, holds him a little bit closer, and desperately hopes that Ashton gets what he’s trying to tell him. He thinks he does, since Ashton’s hands press against Luke’s stomach before reaching up to cup his face so he can run his thumb across Luke’s cheekbone.

The kiss is not necessarily going anywhere, that would be highly inappropriate (Luke ignores the tiny voice in his mind telling him that it has already turned pretty inappropriate the moment their lips touched) but it’s still pretty heavy, and they’re both really, _really_ into it. Which means both of them jump about ten feet in the air when they suddenly hear the sharp ring of the bell, signaling the end of lunch.

“Fuck,” Ashton says, pulling away from Luke, but not letting his hand drop from Luke’s face.

Luke grins, dragging his thumb over Ashton’s hipbone. “Not here.”

“Not what I meant, you idiot.” Ashton says, glaring at Luke. Or at least, it’s probably supposed to be a glare. Instead it just looks very, _very_ fond. “I meant the fact that the hallways are now going to be filled with students and just, you know what it’s going to look like if we stumble out of the goddamn _janitor’s closet_ together?”

Luke hums, “Yeah okay, good point. C’mere,” He reaches for Ashton, straightening out his hair and his shirt, “You go first. I follow after a reasonable amount of time, yeah? It’s okay if I’m going to be a bit late to my class, I’ll just make up some story about struggling with the  copy machine or something like that. My students are pretty much aware of how technically inept I am, they’ll believe me.”

Ashton nods, and turns to walk away, but Luke pulls him back, pressing their lips together one last time. “One for the road,” he says, and Ashton disappears with a smile on his face.

Luke stays behind, leaning against the wall and staring at the pitch black ceiling, taking a few deep breaths. It’s amazing, how after all these years Ashton can still take his breath away. Luke hopes Ashton never loses that ability. But then again, Luke doesn’t think he will.

When he finally goes to leave, his stomach grumbles and he realizes that between searching for Ashton and making out with Ashton he totally forgot to actually eat lunch. Oh well, it was totally worth it.

\--

The weirdest part about being in a secret relationship with one of your fellow teachers is, in Luke’s opinion, the teachers’ lounge. And then specifically _lunch_ in the teachers’ lounge. Because usually at that time the lounge is filled with teachers, all having conversations, laughing and talking about things that happened in their classes and Luke and Ashton have to sit there acting like their lives aren’t very closely intertwined.

Sometimes they almost slip up, and more often than not the “Oh, Ash and I mostly stayed in and watched crappy movies on Netflix.” is on the tip of Luke’s tongue when someone asks him how his weekend was. But they manage, try not to sit at the same table all the time, talk to other people and act like the coworkers all the other teachers think they are.

The downside of no one knowing they’re dating, is that sometimes awkward things happen. Like right now, while Luke and Ashton are both seated at the same lunch table (although they’re both pretty much on other sides of the thing) and Susan, who teaches geography, jokingly asks Luke how his love life is going.

“Oh,” Luke says, staring down at the ham sandwich Ashton made him this morning. “Yeah.” It’s not the first time one of the other teachers have asked him this, after all they’ve been working together for so long now that they can pretty much be considered friends. They get along really well, and of course their love lives get discussed every now and then. They joke about it, about how Susan insists on only dating man that have a foreign accent, and Carl, the PE teachers, goes through women like they’re disposable towels.

But no matter how normal it is for them to discuss these things, Luke still hates it. Mostly because he just really hates lying, and especially to people he considers friends. He brushes the question off every single time with a ‘nobody important at the moment’ and then continues to desperately ignore the sad look involuntarily gets on his face. “There’s no one, at the moment.” Luke eventually says, and usually his coworkers drop it after that.

This time, however, they seem persisitent. “I don’t get it.” Carl says, waving his sandwich in Luke’s direction. “Such a handsome young man as yourself should be able to find someone, right? I mean, if you can’t find the right person, then what hope is there for me?” The rest of the table laughs and Luke awkwardly takes a bite of his sandwich, not really sure how to respond to the question. The sandwich has just the right amount of lettuce, a reminder of the fact that Ashton knows him incredibly well.

“Just haven’t bumped into them yet, I guess.” Luke says with a shrug when the laughter has died down and they’re all expectantly looking at Luke. Luke keeps his eyes focused on his plate and refuses to look at Ashton, who hasn’t laughed along with the rest, nor has he even said a word since this conversations started. He can’t look at him right now, wouldn’t be able to handle the broken look on his face. Ashton has to know Luke’s words aren’t real, they both know it, but it still sucks to hear them, just as much as it hurts to say them.

“Hey, Luke,” Susan say, poking him in the side to get his attention, “If you’re interested, my next door neighbor is like, the cutest guy ever. And I know for a fact that he’s gay. And single. And he’s an _artist_. Makes these really cool charcoal drawings and shit. I think he’d be interested in you, you seem like his type. Want me to set you two up? You could go on a blind date and everything, it would be super cute!” She smiles brightly at him and Luke nearly chokes on his sandwich.

“I, uh, no, uh, thank you,” he eventually stutters out, after he has regained his breath. “I’m good with, uh, not dating for now.”

Unfortunately Susan doesn’t take the hint, or is just very, _very_ persistent, and she continues, “Are you sure? You don’t have to worry he’ll stand you up or anything, he’s the sweetest guy ever. He always helps me carry my bags and buys groceries for the elderly lady two doors over. I’m pretty sure he’s an actual angel. Just like you. Setting you two up would be no problem, I swear!”

Before Luke can even say a word, or make his complete disinterest in Susan’s neighbor _very_ clear, Ashton suddenly stands up from the table. “Well, it was fun guys, but I’m going to have to go. I still have to set up for my next class. We’re going to make clay sculptures.” He’s smiling, but it’s obviously fake, and the way he says ‘clay’ kind of sounds like he’s going to shove one of student’s sculptures down Susan’s throat.

Luke wants to go after him, wants to assure Ashton that it’s fine and the he would never even _think_ about going for Susan’s hot neighbor artist guy, but he knows it would be too suspicious, so he stays seated. But he watches Ashton leave with a look that he hopes conveys “I’m sorry that happened but I love you and only you.” He’s not sure if it works or not, because Ashton doesn’t even glance his way as he practically stomps out of the teacher’s lounge.

The other teachers must notice something is up as well, because Carl raises and eybrow and says, “Geez, what is his problem?”

Martha, also known as the school’s biggest gossiper and their front office manager, leans forward with a conspiratorially look on her face. “I hear he asked out Lucy, you know, the new girl that teaches history? But she rejected him. Word is he’s _heartbroken_ over it.” The rest of the teachers lean over with shocked looks on their faces, while Luke suppresses the urge to snort. Really, he thought High School _kids_ were bad, but apparently the teachers are even worse when it comes to gossiping. They continue to gossip in hushed voices, but Luke tunes them out, knowing that whatever they’re talking about is probably bullshit and is only going to make him feel weird.

So he focuses on his sandwich, eyes locked on the door in the hopes Ashton walks back in. This was certainly not the first time Luke or Ashton’s love life had been discussed in the teachers’ lounge, but it was the first time either of them had been so uncomfortable with it they had to leave the room, and Luke is worried. He knows Ashton is not mad, at least not at him (he hopes), but he still can’t help but feel guilty over not shutting Susan down earlier.

Unfortunately, he won’t be able to talk to Ashton until they’re both home after school, since they take separate cars to schoo, so he spends the rest of the day teaching with an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. Despite knowing there is not much he can do about it now, he doesn’t like knowing Ashton is, or at least was, upset and Luke can’t do anything to comfort him. Not even talk to him. He had a quick ‘hey, you okay?’ at the end of the lunch, when Ashton still hadn’t comeback, but Ashton had all but responded with a short ‘yeah’ and that was the last Luke had heard of him.

\--

When his class finally, _finally_ end, he all but sprints out of the classroom and heads back home. He knows Ashton’s not going to be home yet, usually takes longer in cleaning up his classroom and preparing it for the next morning, but he figures that if Ashton’s going to be in a not happy mood, Luke might as well be at home waiting for him with dinner.

He’s halfway making pasta (one of the few things Luke can actually make without, you know, accidentally setting the kitchen on fire) when he hears the front door open and close. It’s obviously it’s Ashton, Luke can hear it in the way he sighs, the way he walks. Neither of them has acknowledged the others presence yet, though, and Luke knows immediately that whatever was bothering Ashton during lunch, is still on his mind. Or at least _something’s_ bothering him. Usually he would walk into the house, yell something like “Honey, I’m home!” and pull Luke in for a long and heated kiss. Today, however, he shuffles into the kitchen, wraps his arms around Luke’s waist, buries his face between Luke’s shoulder blades and mumbles something that’s probably supposed to be “hey, Luke”  but gets muffled by the fabric of Luke’s shirt.

“Hey love,” Luke murmurs, “How was your day?”

He gets a muffled, unhappy sounding noise in response.

Luke smiles fondly to himself before turning around and allowing Ashton to hug him properly. “That bad?” He says, as Ashton looks up at Luke with a pout on his face for a second before burying his head in Luke’s shoulder. Luke presses a kiss to his hair and rubs a hand down Ashton’s back, happy to just be in his boyfriend’s arms for a bit. At least this means that whatever has Ashton so upset is not his fault.

Eventually Ashton seems recharged enough and ready to speak, because he lifts his head and takes a step back, allowing Luke to turn back to the stove to check on his pasta sauce (slightly burned, but Luke can’t say he really cares. They’ve eaten worst, and to him Ashton’s wellbeing will always be more important than his dinner). In the meantime, Ashton reaches for the cupboard to grab both of them a plate. “At least five of my students made a clay penis during art class today.” He eventually says. Luke knows that’s not what Ashton really wants to talk about, knows they both _need_ to talk about what happened in the teachers’ lounge, but he also knows that Ashton will bring that up when he’s ready. So instead of prying, he just indulges Ashton in his attempt at small talk.

“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised.” Luke has to try very hard to hide his smile.

Ashton sighs. “No, me neither. I mean, I use clay at least once every year during class and every year, without fail, no matter how old they are, someone will make a penis. And they all think they’re being funny. It’s not even… it’s a _penis_ , Luke. I mean, it’s usually the guys making them and like, _they literally already have their own_. They can look at it every day, yet they still feel the need to make one out of clay and giggle at it. It’s _ridiculous_.”

Luke suppresses the urge to burst out into laughter at Ashton’s indignant expressions, like high school boys making penises out of clay is a blatant insult to his craft (in Ashton’s mind it probably is), and nods consolingly, “I’m sorry, Ash. That’s truly horrible.”

“Ashton grumbles. “Stop laughing at me, Hemmings, it’s not funny. You try dealing with a bunch of 16 year old kids who have just been told they can make _whatever they want_ out of clay. It’s bound to be a disaster.”

Luke hums and presses a kiss to Ashton’s shoulder while he’s retrieving cutlery from one of the drawers. “I know it is, love, and I have a ton of respect for you for dealing with it.” Ashton glares at him, and Luke blows him a kiss. “Anyway, you had the Freshmen for music class this morning, didn’t you? That’s usually a ton of fun.”

“Well, they made an exception for today, apparently,” Ashton says, pausing to taste the spoonful of pasta sauce Luke holds out for him. “Just a pinch of salt and you’re good. Anyway, I was teaching them about drum and rhythm and all that jazz, which went pretty well until we got to the practical part of the lesson…” He trails off with a grave look on his face and Luke raises an eyebrow.

“That bad?”

Ashton sends him a look. “One broken drum kit and two kids had to be excused form class so they could pay a visit to the school nurse.”

“Yikes,” Luke says, as he stirs the pasta through the sauce. “Well, on the bright side, you can ask the school board for a new drum kit now?”

Ashton pauses to look up at him and smiles, all soft and simple. Luke is pretty sure this is the first genuine smile he has seen from Ashton since he came through the door earlier. There’s something behind it, though. There’s something in Ashton’s face, a hint of an emotion Luke can’t quite place, until Ashton says, “That’s why I love you so much, you always see the positive side in anything.

Luke blushes, which is _ridiculous_ , because they have been together for years now and Ashton has told him ‘I love you’ more times than he can count, but still. There’s something about this moment, in their kitchen, after they’ve just gotten out of work and are getting ready to eat dinner, that feels awfully domestic and cozy. It’s the moments like these that Luke wishes would last forever, the moments where it’s just them and no one else. No students to worry about, no coworkers, nothing. Just them and their slightly burned pasta sauce.

“Love you too, Ash,” Luke mumbles, leaning over to give him a kiss, the first proper kiss he’s gotten from Ashton since he came home, and  Ashton responds by immediately dropping the salad spoons on the table so he can grab the front of Luke’s shirt and pull him closer.

“You’re it, yeah?” Ashton murmurs against Luke’s lips. “You’re it, for me.” Luke has no idea what he means by that, but he does know that the pasta he worked so hard on is getting cold, so he regretfully pulls away from Ashton and says as much. “Not sure what you mean, but you can tell me about it later, yeah? Right now it’s pasta time.”

Ashton sighs, and looks away. “No, we need to talk. Now. About, about what happened today, during lunch.” They’ve both sat down now, and Luke looks up from where he’s shoveling pasta onto his plate.

“Okay I, yeah. I’m sorry, about that. I know you don’t like it when, well, those kind of conversations come up. I’m personally not very fond of them either.”

Ashton smiles weakly. “Yeah, I just, I shouldn’t have run off like that? But, uh, the reason I don’t like those conversations is because, well, it just reminds me of how young we are and that, at least to our coworkers, we are eligible bachelors and it’s just.” Ashton aggressively pokes at a piece of pasta, mostly to avoid looking at Luke, “It reminds me of how easy it is for you to ditch me and find someone else, someone better. Like Susan’s hot artist neighbor guy.”

Luke nearly drops his fork at Ashton’s words. Because that, _that_ , is ridiculous. Also the last thing Luke expected to hear. He thought Ashton would say something like ‘it just bugs me because you’re mine’, not ‘it bugs me because it makes me think you are going to leave me’. He clenches his fists, to avoid from doing something weird like grabbing Ashton by the front of his shirt and kissing him until he believes that Luke is never _ever_ going to leave him. “You, fuck, you think I’m going to replace you? You think I _can_ replace you? That I can just walk away from you and everything we have?” Luke hears the hint of desperation is his own voice, unable to grasp the fact that Ashton genuinely thinks he’s _disposable_. “Ashton, Ashton look at me.” Ashton looks up, hesitantly, and Luke grabs his hand from across the table. “You’re mine, okay? And I’m yours. And that’s not going to change, nothing’s ever going to change that. Not even Susan’s hot artist neighbor guy.”

Ashton sighs, intertwining his fingers with Luke’s on the table, while twirling his word around in the other. “It just sucks, you know? To have to sit there and listen to Susan trying to set you up with someone else, and them saying how it’s weird that you’re still single, and I just want to scream “No, he’s not, he’s mine!” but I can’t. And then hearing you say things like “I just haven’t found the right person yet,” like, I know you’re lying, I mean, I sure hope so, but it just. It still feels like a punch to the gut.” He pauses, and averts his eyes back to his pasta. “I just wish we could tell them. About us, about how you’re not single at all. And that I’m not single either. I mean, they would joke about it, probably, and Carl would definitely do that stupid whistle thing every time we would walk into the room together, but it would be easier, at least. Because you would be mine and no one would try to set you up with anyone else because they’d all _know_ you were mine.

Luke sighs and takes a bite from his pasta, so he has time to think about how to respond. He knows what Ashton wants, knows that Ashton just wants to come out and tell everyone they’re dating, but it’s just, Luke doesn’t think he’s ready for that yet. Luke likes they life they have now, where they wake up in each other’s arm and eat breakfast together before going to school. He likes coming home and cooking dinner with Ashton before they watch TV and then go to bed, falling asleep in each other’s arms again. And he’s scared that that’s going to change, somehow. It’s just the two of them, now, but somehow it feels like if the whole school knows, that is going to change. Luke knows he’s being ridiculous, because their coworkers don’t even come over to their house during the weekend or anything, so they will still have their alone time, and yet. Luke thinks he mostly ust really likes keeping Ashton for himself, at least until he knows they’re both in it for the long run. (Like he’s not sure of that already. After all, he knows he’d never be able to leave Ashton and Ashton just flat out told him he’s The One for him). He just can’t stop the doubt from creeping up to him, even though he can’t exactly pinpoint why. “Ash-“ Luke eventually starts, but immediately gets cut off by Ashton viciously shaking his head.

“No, it’s okay. I know you’re not ready yet, to tell the people at school and stuff, and I understand. I just. I want you to know that I’m okay with it, if you do eventually want to tell. It’s not going to change anything between us if you’re not ready, but I don’t want it to be something that breaks us up because we refused to talk about it. I’m here for you, always, whatever you decide. Please don’t ever forget that.” Ashton smiles reassuringly at him, squeezing Luke’s hand. “In the meantime Susan and her hot neighbor artist guy can suck my dick.”

Luke snorts at Ashton’s words and Ashton glares at him. “Not literally, you dick.”

He’s laughing, though, just like Luke, and even though they haven’t really resolved anything, at least they’ve talked about it now and that makes everything a whole lot better. Luke feels like there’s a weight lifted off his chest. He looks at Ashton, who has finally let go of Luke’s hand to eat his pasta (that’s surely gone cold by now), and can’t help the wave of fondness that spills over him. Ashton was hurt by what happened today, was annoyed by it, even, but he still brushes it off because he knows Luke isn’t ready yet. Ashton’s always going to put Luke first, and even thought Luke knows he should feel a bit guilty about that, he also knows he would do exactly the same for Ashton.

Luke and Ashton are a team, have been since the day they met, and probably will be one till the day they die. And it’s not always going to be easy and people like Susan will try to set Luke up with their hot neighbors and they will do weird things like make out in the janitors closets and one of these days Ashton’s soft loving smile is probably going to be the death of Luke, but that’s okay. Because in the end, they will always have each other.

“Hey,” Luke says, before he does something weird like combust into flames with how much he is in love with this stupid boy, “I love you.” The words float through the silent room, only filled with the noise their cutlery makes when it scrapes across the plate. There’s a meaning behind them that goes far behind ‘I love you’, one that says things like ‘you’re the most important person in my life and I never want to lose you’ and ‘thank you for not getting mad about me not wanting to come out’ and ‘I know this pasta sauce tastes like shit but you still ate it without complaining about it and you’re awesome for that’. Luke hopes Ashton catches all of that, hopes that Ashton understand what Luke _means._

Ashton nudges his foot against Luke’s leg under the table and smiles softly. “Love you too, Lukey.”

\--

4.

Monday is Luke’s least favorite day of the week for multiple reasons. First of all, work starts again, which, don’t get him wrong, he loves his job, but it’s always hard to get out of the slow relaxed rhythm of the weekend and be catapulted back into the hectic life of a high school teacher. Weekends are for late nights falling asleep in front of the TV with Ashton,  going for drinks with Michael and Calum, and visiting their families. Weekends are for staying in be till the sun is high in the sky and for tracing the outline of Ashton’s muscles in the soft afternoon light, their legs tangled in the sheets and Luke’s head pillowed on Ashton’s shoulder.

The seconds reason Luke isn’t particularly fond of Monday’s is because Monday mean the weekly staff meeting, which is, to put it mildly, rather boring. Plus, it means that he has to get to school an hour early, because apparently it’s better to do staff meeting in the morning rather than in the afternoon (something about how it clashes with productivity and after school activities). Which means that Monday mornings are spend in the stuffy teachers’ lounge, while everyone discusses last week’s affairs and upcoming events. Luke spends most of it trying not to die of boredom while simultaneously trying to keep Carl awake by flinging tiny pieces of crumpled up paper at his face (because even though Luke thoroughly enjoys watching Carl getting scolded by their headmaster for sleeping during meetings, he enjoys Carl’s startled face when he’s hit in the nose by a piece of paper a lot more).

The final reason Luke just really wishes Monday would cease to exist, is because he has a lot of free periods. He has a few free periods every day, of course, and he usually enjoys them because he can use them to relax for a bit, grade some papers, and maybe prepare for his next class. But on Monday, he only teaches the first and last periods, which means he has load of free time in the middle that he never really knows what to do with. He can’t really go home, because there’s nothing worse than going home and getting all into the relax mode only to have to go back to school again to work, but staying at school is rather boring too.

Ususally, Luke spends it grading papers, preparing classes and watching How I Met Your Mother for the umpteenth time on Netflix, but today he’s not really feeling it. He’s already finished grading all his papers, has nothing much left to prepare, and Netflix keeps buffering on him, which is getting really annoying.

Which means he ends up wandering through the hallways of the school, planning on going outside to catch some fresh air. He stops on the ground floor, though, outside of Ashton’s classroom, to look at the beautiful paintings he’s hung up there. Ashton has two class rooms, one for his art classes and one for his music classes, right across from each other and the hallway between those classroom is littered by art created by the students. There’s oil paintings, charcoal drawings, and even a few very creative finger painted ones. Luke loves looking at them when he gets the chance. He likes the idea that Ashton inspires other people to do better, to _be_ better, just like he inspires Luke.

Something catches Luke’s eye, and he stops to admire it. It’s a painting, lots of vibrant colors and aggressive brush strokes, and it probably should display fury, or anger, but instead it looks rather loving. It’s like someone tried really, _really_ , hard to be annoyed, but instead just ended up being extremely fond. While Luke stands there admiring the work, he can hear noises floating down from the music class room. The first thing he can pick out is Ashton’s voice, the authoritative one he gets when he’s teaching, and then he hears the sound of guitars. It’s quite the cacophony of noises and Luke can’t help but be drawn to it.

When he reaches Ashton’s classroom, the door is open and Luke immediately recognizes the class as a freshmen one he teaches too. The students are scattered throughout the classroom, in small groups, each group in possession of a guitar. Ashton’s helping out a group all the way in the front, back turned to Luke. He’s waving his arms around as he explains something to the girl currently holding the guitar and showing her how to place her fingers and Luke can’t help the soft smile that tugs at his lips as he settles himself against the doorframe.

No one has noticed him yet, which means he can get a few interrupted moments of watching Ashton teach. There’s something magical about the way Ashton acts around children. He’s patient and loving and watching him smile at one of the boys that pulls of an amazing guitar riff makes something flutter low in Luke’s stomach. Looking at Ashton now, he can see a future. One filled with children, one filled with nappies and early mornings and sticky hand prints everywhere. One filled with love and happiness and, most importantly, _family_.

And looking at Ashton, the man he has loved for years, and who he will love for years to come, he realizes there is literally no one else he wants that with. More than ever, Lue realizes that there is never going to be anybody else. It’s going to be him and Ashton for a very, _very_ long time, if it’s up to Luke.

Luke gets shaken from his thoughts by a voice calling out his name. “Mr. Hemmings?” He looks up to find the group of students closest to the door looking at him expectantly. “Do you need anything?” Brad, one of the guys in the group asks, “Do you have a question for Mr. Irwin?”

“No, I, uh,” Luke stumbles over his words, looking up to see Ashton still hasn’t noticed him. “No, I was just, I was going to go outside and then I heard the music,” he eventually says. “The guitar is a great instrument,” he adds, lamely. It’s not even a total lie. After all, the music is _exactly_ what drew him to the classroom in the first place. Just not what made him stay.

“Yeah,” Brad says, looking down at the instrument in his hands, “It’s hard, though. We can’t really seem to get the hang of it.” He gestures at the rest of his little group, who all nod solemnly. “We wanted to ask Mr. Irwin for help, but he’s busy.” Brad points towards the front of the classroom, where Ashton is still talking to the group of students sitting there. Luke glances around to the other groups, who haven’t seem to noticed him yet, and quickly sits down between Brad and a girl he thinks is named Sophia.

“Here, hand me the guitar,” Luke says, and Brad hands him the guitar with a hesitant look on his face. Luke strums a few notes to get the hang of it again (it’s been a while since he played), and starts playing some random tunes. The students look at him in awe, and when he finishes Sophia looks at him with wide eyes. “I didn’t know you could play, Mr. Hemmings!”

“Yeah-“ Luke starts, but abruptly breaks it off. Because what he was going to say was “Ashton taught me how when we first moved in together,” but he knows he can’t. Even though these students are harmless, and probably don’t even know that ‘Mr. Irwin’s first name is Ashton, he still can’t. It’s too much of a risk. And he hates that fact, hates that he can’t even share that with his students, that the same man that taught him how to play is teaching them now too. So instead, he just mumbles “Someone taught me how to play, once. I only know a few chord, though. Nothing too special.”

“I thought you sounded amazing,” a voice behind him says, and Luke turns around so fast that he almost falls off his chair. Ashton’s standing behind him, looking at him much like all of his other students, with an amused smile on his face. “Is there a reason you are crashing my class and stealing my students’ guitar, Mr. Hemmings?” He says with the raise of an eyebrow, and Luke almost trips over his own feet as he stands up. There is something about the amused and challenging look on Ashton’s face that does things to him that he really doesn’t want to think about right now.

“I, uh, I was just-“ Luke waves his arms around, “I heard music, when walking past your classroom. I was, it sounded good?” God, he’s acting like a school girl with a crush right now. It’s just, he can’t help it. Ashton’s looking at him with that soft smile he only reserves for Luke and Luke has to do everything in his power not to grab him by the front of his button down and kiss him. Some of the students seem to notice this too, because he can hear a bunch of them giggling behind his back.

“Well, now you’re here, why don’t we show the students what a good duet on the guitar sounds like? Because by the looks of it, you are quite skilled.” Ashton has that mischievous twinkle in his eye that Luke loves and hates so much and he’s gesturing at Luke to come to the front of the class. Luke sighs in defeat and follows his boyfriend to the front of the class, knowing there is no way he’s going to be able to talk him out of this idea.

Besides, it’s actually kind of nice. Luke loves playing with Ashton, and they used to do it at home a lot, but recently they haven’t really had the chance. As Luke sits down and takes the guitar Ashton gives him, he can see the students looking at them expectantly. “So, Mr. Irwin, what are we playing?” Luke says, turning towards Ashton with a  smile on his face.

Ashton doesn’t say a thing, just starts strumming some chords, and it doesn’t really take long for Luke to catch on to what Ashton’s playing.

The son of a bitch has launched into the beginning chords of ‘Your Song’ by Elton John, which is next to one of the cheesiest love songs ever written also the song Luke and Ashton slow danced to on Luke’s brother’s wedding. It was the first time Ashton met all of Luke’s family, and the memory still has a special place in his heart. Of course Ashton would choose to play this, just to fuck with Luke.

But two can play at that game, and Luke isn’t one to back down easily. So when he joins Ashton in the guitar play, he also softly starts singing the lyrics, knowing how much Ashton loves to hear him sing.

“It’s a little bit funny, this feeling inside,” He starts, and looks up at Ashton, who kind of looks like a deer in headlights. Good.

“I’m not one of those who can easily hide.”

Luke almost snorts as he sings the line because really, isn’t that what they’ve been doing for all these years now? Hiding? It’s true that he finds it hard to hide is love for Ashton, and he’s pretty sure he’s actually all heart eye right now, but god have they tried to hide what is really happening between them. And succeeded. Right now, Luke isn’t really sure if that is a good thing.

He continues to sing the song, and with each line his voice gets a little bit more confident. Ashton is probably purposely not looking at him, as he keeps his eyes trained on the groups of students in front of him. The students, who all seem mesmerized by their teachers performance.

But then, when he reaches the chorus, he suddenly hears voices joining him. A bunch of girls in the back are quietly joining in, and when Luke nods encouragingly their way they sing a little bit louder. Soon, more people are joining in, and Luke can even hear Ashton next to him softly singing along. It’s hauntingly beautiful, this choir of freshmen, accompanied by two guitars and their teachers, belting out the lyrics to such a relic of a love song.

On the last “How wonderful life is now you’re in the world.” Luke chances a look at Ashton, only to find him already looking back. As the last chords fade out Luke and Ashton keep staring at each other, and Luke is quite convinced he would’ve leaned forward and kissed Ashton hadn’t it been for the explosion of noise that breaks out among the students once the song is finished.

 “That was AWESOME!” Brad yells from the back of the class and the other students join in with excited cheering.

“Mr. Hemmings, can you come in like, always?” Emily, a girl sitting all the way a the front asks, “You sounded, like, totally amazing.”

“Thank you, Emily,” Luke says with a laugh. “But I think I’m going to leave the music teaching thing to Mr. Irwin.”

“You better, or I’d be out of a job. And how would I provide for y-“ Ashton starts, but abruptly cuts himself off. “How would I provide for my future husband then?”

Luke’s good mood takes a dent, at those words. It’s a grave reminder that to these kids, they are just ‘Mr. Hemmings and Mr. Irwin, coworkers’.

“Right,” Luke says, getting up. “I should get back to my own classroom, and you should get back to actual teaching. See you later, Mr. Irwin.” And with a last soft smile he exits the classroom. Behind him he can still hear the exited chatter of the students and Ashton’s calm voice trying to get them back in order.

The hallways are depressingly quiet after the lively joy that was Ashton’s classroom. Luke spends the rest of his free periods alone.

\--

The biggest downside of having a classroom all the way on the top floor of the building is that Luke is usually the last to know things. Huge food fight in the cafeteria? Luke only found out because his students came in looking like they’ve been bathing in the world’s biggest fast-food dump. Someone pranking Mrs. Goodwin so all her pens squirted ink everywhere? He only knew because the poor old woman had ink stains on her arms and hands for weeks.

Most of the time, Luke doesn’t really mind, because most of the time they are things he doesn’t really want to be a part of. Prank wars, flooded bathrooms, keep them all far away from his classroom.

This time however, Luke finds himself cursing the fact that he is always, _always_ last to know.

It starts on a Friday morning, when Ashton tells Luke in the morning that he and the seniors will be making sculptures out of stone that day.

“I thought it would be a nice step up from the clay,” Ashton says, pouring milk over his cornflakes. “Give them something real to work with, you know? The kind of stone we’re using is pretty hard to work with, but I figure they can do it. It’s nice to be able to give them a challenge, you know?”

“I think you’re mental for giving your seniors class giant blocks of stone,” Luke tells him, taking a sip of his tea, “But that’s why I love you.”

“Thanks?” Ashton says, “I’m just glad the headmaster is giving me different stuff to work with. I mean when I started here the arts classes was literally just drawing. Which, don’t get me wrong, I love drawing-“

“I know,” Luke says, cutting Ashton off. He pointedly looks towards the living room, who’s walls are covered with drawings Ashton has made over the years. There are some from when they just got together, side profiles of Luke smiling shyly, abstract paintings with lots of bright colors, a drawing of the flowers Luke got him for their first date. Some are more recent, like the drawing of Luke sleeping, the drawing of the trees Ashton made when they went to the park together.

Ashton huffs, “Shut up. Anyway, I’m just glad they’re allowing to experiment more. Try new things.”

“Yeah, I know, babe,” Luke says with a smile. “And I’m happy for you. Just make sure none of the students drop their fucking sculptures on their toes, yeah?”

Looking back on it, maybe Luke should’ve warned Ashton, too. Maybe he jinxed it, in some sort of weird way, by not telling Ashton to be careful, with the sculptures, too. But, in the end, he probably couldn’t have done anything to stop it from happening.

He doesn’t even find out what happened from Ashton himself, no, he hears it from a group of excitedly chatting junior boys that come in for fourth period.

“…Just fell of the table, straight on his foot! James said he cursed like a sailor, but what do you want, if someone drops a half finished sculpture of a kangaroo on your foot.” Benny says, and the rest of the boys snicker.

“What happened?” Luke blurts out, curious when he heard the word ‘sculpture’, remembering the conversation he had with Ashton that morning. Normally he doesn’t intervene with the conversation his students have, because it’s none of his business, but this time he can’t stop himself. He’s pretty sure this is about Ashton’s class.

The boys turn towards him with almost excited looks on their faces. The kind high school students get when something out of the ordinary happens on a school day. “Mr. Irwin was making sculptures out of stone today in class. But then as they were finishing up, Emily accidentally dropped her sculpture of a kangaroo, or well, what was supposed to be a kangaroo, on Mr. Irwin’s foot. I think he’s at the school nurse now, but James said he probably had to go to the hospital.”

For a moment, Luke completely forgets he is a responsible teacher in a learning environment as he stares at the boys with wide eyes and exclaims “ _What?!”_

“Uh,” Benny says, “Mr. Irwin hurt his foot?” Like Luke hadn’t understood that part loud and clear.

It was like something short circuited in Luke’s mind. _Ashton hurt himself_. _Ashton was hurt. Ashton was in pain_. At that time, he doesn’t really care he must look like a deranged idiot, storming out of his classroom faster than Speedy Gonzales on crack. He vaguely registers yelling “Work on stuff for next week or something!” At his students as he rushes past them. He doesn’t know how they’re looking at him, because he doesn’t care. All he cares about is that Ashton got _hurt_ , and that Luke wasn’t there to take care of him.

The nurses office, like Ashton’s classroom, is on the ground floor and Luke almost trips down the stairs trying to get down fast enough. It would’ve been ironic, had he fallen. Then both him and Ashton would’ve ended up at the hospital together, yelling at each other to be more careful.

But luckily Luke makes it down the stairs safely and before he knows it he’s swinging open the door to the nurses office, only to be faced with a confused and slightly flabbergasted nurse. “Luke?” Jenny says, “Is everything okay? You didn’t hurt your foot as well, did you? I mean I’m pretty sure you can’t actually break your toes dropping a calculator on them but at this point honestly nothing surprises me anymore.”

“I’m fine,” Luke grits out, frantically looking around, panting heavily. “Where’s Ashton?”

“Here!” Ashton says, poking his head up from the couch he’d been lying on. “Hi, Luke.”

Luke feels a million emotions at once. Relief, that Ashton seems to be mostly okay, an overwhelming sense of love, for the disheveled hair and the goofy look on Ashton’s face, and, the one that wins it out in the end, anger. “Ashton, you fucking _moron_.”

“Uh,” Ashton says, “What?”

“I can’t believe you! You know I had to hear you had gotten hurt from freaking _Benny_?! This entire fucking school new before me, you asshole! Couldn’t you have like, I don’t know, fucking texted me or something? ‘Yo Luke don’t worry but some kid just dropped her abomination of a kangaroo on my foot gotta go to the hospital brb’ would’ve done the trick, trust me. But _no_ , instead I have to hear from my own goddamn students, who probably now think I am _insane_ storming out of the classroom like that just to see if you were okay, and here you are, and the first thing you say to me is ‘ _Hi, Luke_ ’?!”

“Luke,” Ashton says, his voice soft and loving, “Luke, love, don’t worry. I’m fine, okay. They’re going to take me to the hospital for a check-up and I probably broke at least one of my toes, but it’s going to be fine. I’m okay.”

Luke huffs out a frustrated breath and ambles over to the couch, kneeling down next to and grabbing Ashton’s face. “You know I hate the idea of you getting hurt.”

“I know, babe.” Ashton said, leaning forward so his forehead was leaning against Luke’s, “But I’m fine, see?” He wiggled his foot, that was propped up on pillow, and winced slightly, “Or, well, I will be.”

Luke huffs, not fully satisfied by Ashton’s words. His foot looks uncomfortably swollen, and there is already bruising forming that looks just down right painful. He has to turn away to look at Ashton again, because looking at his foot make him kind of feel nauseous, and guilty. Guilty that he couldn’t protect his boyfriend from getting hurt, couldn’t protect him from this pain.

Ashton, like Ashton does, tries to play it off like it’s no big deal. Luke can tell it really hurts him, but Ashton keeps a straight face, and places a hand on Luke’s cheek, reassuringly running his thumb over his cheekbone. “Really, I’ll be fine. It’s nothing they can’t fix.”

Luke sighs and leans up, pressing a kiss to Ashton’s temple. “Who’s getting you to the hospital, then? You know I’d love to take you, but I don’t think I can abandon my class even more than I already have.” Luke frowns, thinking about the gaggle of juniors he just left to fend for themselves. Now that he knows that Ashton is mostly okay, he realizes he probably can’t leave them on their own much longer.

“Carl has a few free periods before soccer practice after school, so he’ll take me. Jenny would, but she has to stay here in case something else happens,” Ashton says, gesturing towards Jenny, who is still standing next to the door, staring at Luke and Ashton with open mouth.

Suddenly Luke realizes they just had very obvious PDA in front of one of their coworkers, one that now obviously knows what’s really going on between them. One that could potentially tell the rest of their coworkers, the rest of the _school_.

Luke feels himself jump away from Ashton with wide eyes, even though deep down he knows it’s useless. Ashton is sporting the same caught expression on his face Luke must have, and Jenny is still staring at them open mouthed. “Jenny, I-“ Luke starts, but the mention of her name seems to shake the nurse from her thoughts and she holds up her hands.

“Don’t worry Luke, Ashton, I won’t tell anyone. Just. I didn’t really… It’s quite the surprise, seeing you two together. But it’s not,” She huffs, and a smile breaks out on her face. “You two look cute together. I do want to warn you, though, because Carl can be here any minute to come pick Ashton up, and I don’t think he’d be as forgiven if he found out.”

For a moment lets himself think about it, about Carl walking in on him and Ashton making out. They would _never_ hear the end of it, probably. Fuck, they would be years and years down the road, and Carl would still tell the story of how he once walked in on Luke ‘shoving his tongue down Ashton’s throat’. Luke would probably get all flustered every single time Carl would tell the story, and Ashton would yell at him to knock it off, but they would laugh about it every time.

Luke shakes the thought, however, and gets up from the floor after pressing one last kiss to Ashton’s forehead. He’s glad Jenny won’t say anything, and he knows they can trust her. Their secret will be safe, for now.

But the whole thing does get Luke thinking. What if people had known him and Ashton were together? Then he’d be one of the first to know something was wrong. Then no one would find it weird if he just stormed out of the classroom. Then no one would blink an eye at him sinking down on his knees next to Ashton to kiss his forehead and make sure he’s okay.

Hell, people probably would’ve found it weird if he _hadn’t_ done any of those things. Because of course Luke would worry about his boyfriend, of course he would try to comfort him. For the first time he’s really starting to see the benefits of being open about their relationship.

And the added bonus to being out would be no more meddling coworkers, no more pretending they barely know each other towards their students, no more hiding to make out. Okay, maybe still hiding to make out. Luke really doesn’t think it’s appropriate just to plant one on Ashton in the middle of the work day, but still. The idea they don’t have to be as secretive as they are being now is starting to sound really promising.

As he looks back at Ashton one last time before exiting the nurses office, mouthing at him to call Luke as soon as he knows more, he thinks that maybe the time of keeping their relationship a secret is over.

That maybe, _maybe_ , it is time to stop hiding.

\--

+1

Ashton has broken two toes and heavily bruised another one and Luke seems to be more upset by this than him.

“You need to _rest_ ,” Luke says for what feels like the millionth time as he pushes Ashton back down on the couch. “Whatever you need, I’ll go get if for you.”

It’s Sunday, which means it’s only two days after the disastrous sculpture fiasco that landed Ashton a trip to the hospital. Ashton got strict instructions to give his toes as much rest as possible, keep them levitated, and make sure he sat down as much as possible during his classes.

(Luke is already thinking about how he can bribe their students into actually making sure Ashton stays put, because he knows his boyfriend, and he knows he won’t be able to sit still. Maybe he can give his students bonus points for every time they tell Ashton to sit the fuck back down.)

On Saturday it had been fine, the whole not moving thing, since they’d spend most of the day on the couch watching movies and eating take-out food. It was nice, to have a day where they were pretty much forced to do nothing. But now, on day two of Ashton’s injury, Luke could tell Ashton was getting restless. Usually on a Sunday as beautiful as this one he would go for a run, or at least check on his plants in the garden. Now, unfortunately, he was stuck inside.

“What I want is for you to leave me alone,” Ashton grumbles with no real heat behind it, crossing his arms over his chest. He looks like a petulant child, sitting on the couch, surrounded by pillows and covered in blankets, with a pout on his face. He’s wearing his glasses, which he really only does when he is sick, and in Luke’s eyes he looks absolutely adorable.

“If you’re nice I’ll make you brownies.” Luke says as he presses a kiss to Ashton’s shoulder and heads for the kitchen. “The nice ones with raspberries in them.”

“You can’t bribe me with chocolate!” Ashton yells back. “I am non-bribable!” There’s a short pause, in which Luke looks at him expectantly from the doorway to the kitchen.

“Will they have white chocolate in them?” Ashton eventually asks, and when Luke nods he sighs, defeated, and sinks back into the pillows. “Then maybe I am bribable after all.”

“I knew you were a sucker for my raspberry brownies.” Luke says, as he turns to the kitchen to grab all the ingredients.

“I only love you for your brownies!” Ashton yells.

“I only love you for your body!” Luke yells back.

“Well then your life sucks because my body is _broken_ right now,” Ashton says, with a slight whine to his voice.

“Which is exactly why you need to keep that pretty ass of yours on the couch.” Luke says, rummaging the cupboards for the sugar. “And also why I am making you brownies.”

“That’s not the only reason, is it?” Ashton asks, carefully, and once again Luke is reminded of the fact that Ashton knows him better than anyone ever will. Because of course Ashton knows Luke only ever bakes things when something is bothering him, when he needs his hands to be occupied because his brain won’t shut up.

“I,” Luke starts, staring down at the jar of flour he managed to retrieve from the top shelf, “No.”

There’s a pause. Luke can hear shuffeling from the living room, and he guesses it’s Ashton trying to get more comfortable. And indeed, when he looks up Ashton has switched his position on the couch, so he’s looking straight into the kitchen now. So he’s looking straight at Luke. “Tell me what’s wrong, bug.”

Luke sighs and stalls his answer by weighing out the right amount of flour. “I, I just. This whole thing with your foot just got me thinking, you know. About you and me.”

Ashton snorts. “What, you’re breaking up with me? Decided you can’t date a man who is stupid enough to let one of his students drop a half-assed kangaroo on his foot?”

“Never,” Luke says, and the sincerity of the word seems to shock both of them a bit. “I mean, that’s not what I meant to say. I just. It kind of bothered me, that I was last to know, you know? About your injury. If,” He pauses, and punches the buttons on the scale with a frustrated look on his face. “If they had known, about you and me, they would’ve contacted me first, you know? I mean, this time it was only your foot, but imagine it was something worse.” Luke breaths out as he finally gets the scale to work and turns towards Ashton. “I hate the idea of something happening to you and me just not knowing.”

Ashton cocks his head to the side, eyeing Luke curiously, “So what you’re saying is…”

“I’ve been thinking that maybe it is time for us to, you know, announce our love to the world?” Luke flinches, “God that sounds weird.”

Ashton snorts, “That kind of sounds like you’re going to steal Carl’s megaphone and yell ‘I AM SUCKING ASHTON’S DICK ON A REGULAR BASIS’ during the next football game.”

“I said announce our love to the world, not scare the entire student body by giving them unnecessary details about our love life.” Luke sighs, “Anyway, I’m serious. I just. I think it’s time for us to come out. As a couple. Like, the time of hiding is over  and shit.”

“Are you only saying this because someone dropped an abomination of a kangaroo on my foot and now you’re scared I am going to die on you the next time I introduce a new material in my class, or have you seriously thought this through?” Ashton sounds skeptical, and Luke doesn’t blame him. Luke has always been one for rash decisions when it came to Ashton safety (and Ashton in general, honestly) and the fact that he’s the one to bring up this topic, while he had always been so strongly against, could be considered weird.

“Yes, I’ve thought this through. I just-“ He lets out a sigh and leaves the half-finished brownie mix to sit on the coffee table, next to Ashton. “It’s just everything that’s been happening lately. There was the thing where they students almost caught us kissing in my classroom the other day, and how we made out in a freaking janitor’s closet afterwards. The whole incident with Susan’s hot neighbor guy. The sculpture incident.” Luke counts down on his fingers. “And then there was the time we played guitar together. That was, god, Ash, that was so much fun. And it showed me that we could interact in school and that it didn’t matter what the kids thought. I felt free, in that moment, you know? And I want to feel that way all the time. I don’t want to feel like I’m trapped anymore.”

Luke can feel himself getting a bit panicky. It’s important for him that Ashton understands, understands that he wants this, that he is ready to tell the world. “You’re the one for me, Ash, you know that. You’re the only one I ever want to be with for the rest of my life, and I think I am finally ready to share that with the world.”

Ashton leans forward and grabs Luke’s face in both his hands. “Hey, hey babe, look at me.” Luke looks up to find Ashton staring at him with soft, fond eyes. “I love you, yeah? And I want to come out, I really do, you know that as well. But I will only do it if you are one hundred percent sure you want to too.”

Luke laughs, a nervous choked up one, and leans his head forward so it’s resting against Ashton’s. The angle is a bit awkward, since Ashton is half sitting on the couch and Luke is still perched on the coffee table, but they make it work. “I want to.” He says. _‘I want you_ ’, he thinks. In the end, they probably mean the same thing.

\--

The rest of the day they talk a lot about what they could do, or say, while Luke finishes up the brownies. By the time they’re done, Ashton is contemplating matching ‘This teacher is my boyfriend’ with arrows pointing left and right respectively.

“Yes and then you’re walking next to Carl, what happens then?” Luke says, handing Ashton a brownie on a plate.

“Okay, so maybe no t-shirts.” Ashton says, taking a bit out of his brownie. He moans sinfully around his mouthful. “You are a god and I want to marry you so you will only ever make these brownies for me and no one else.”

Luke snorts. “Romantic.” There’s a bit of chocolate smeared in the corner of Ashton’s mouth, and Luke carefully wipes it off. Ashton playfully bites at his thumb. “What if we just don’t say anything?”

“That’s literally what we’ve been doing all this time.” Ashton says, frowning at Luke. Luke suddenly realizes that Ashton thinks he’s back tracking, that he doesn’t want to come out after all.

“No, no that’s not what I mean. Like, what we’re doing now is purposely keeping it from people, you know? Arriving in separate cars, saying we’re single, never talking about each other or even interacting in the first place, stuff like that. That’s deliberate lying. What I mean is, we don’t make a statement. We don’t specifically that we’re dating. We just. We just stop holding back. Tomorrow morning,  we’re going to get in a car and drive to school together. You’re going to walk me to my classroom, and you’re going to hold my hand, and kiss me goodbye, and at the end of the day I will come pick you back up. And during the lunch break I am going to sit next to you and every time someone asks how your foot is doing I will say that it’s mostly your ego that has taken a hit and that you’ve spent most of your weekend whining at me to make you brownies. And then you will probably frown at me and I will kiss your nose and tell you I love you regardless and that will be that.” Luke smiles softly at Ashton, “Then the whole world will know that you’re mine and mine alone.”

Ashton laughs, “I can already picture their reactions. Susan is going to yell at us for probably the rest of our career for never telling her and making a fool of herself by trying to set us up with others. And Carl will probably make fun of us so much, oh my god.” He sounds weirdly enthusiastic about the idea. Luke shares the sentiment and shoves a piece of brownie in his mouth so he doesn’t stare at Ashton too fondly.

“The students are going to have a field day.” Luke says, when he’s finally swallowed his mouth full.

“They _are_ ,” Ashton says, placing his empty plate on the table. Ashton has the special talent of basically being able to inhale Luke’s brownies, Luke discovered a while back. He’s still impressed. “And then we’re going to be the hot gossip for maybe a week, but after that everything will blow over and it’ll be normal and we can just be _us_.”

Luke smiles softly at Ashton. He likes the sound of that, the idea of not having to hide anymore. The more he thinks about it, the more and more he wants it. “Do you reckon we’ll get in trouble with the principal?” He asks, because that’s the one thing he’s scared about. That inter-teacher relationships are forbidden, especially same sex ones, and that one of them is getting fired. Maybe even both of them.

“No, I checked the rule book a week after our first date,” Ashton says, once again showing how much faith he’s had in their relationship from the beginning. “It’s allowed for two teacher to date, no matter their gender.”

“Cool,” Luke says, taking the final bite of his brownie, and placing his plate next to Ashton’s, before joining his boyfriend on the couch. He lays down on top of Ashton, careful not to jostle his foot, and places his head on Ashton’s chest. Almost as a reflex, Ashton’s hand tangles himself in Luke’s hair as he presses a kiss to his forehead.

“Very cool,” Ashton mumbles, “The coolest.”

Luke hums, and suddenly feels very, very tired. It’s not been a long day, but it’s been emotionally draining, and he can feel his eyes falling close. It’s not the worst place he’s ever fallen asleep, Luke thinks, as he runs his thumb over Ashton’s bicep. Actually, when he thinks about it, it’s probably one of the best.

Before he falls asleep, he thinks about how everyone is going to know, tomorrow, and how everything is going to chance, hopefully for the better. Luke realized, for the first time in a really long time, that he’s not going to care what other will think of him. All he cares about is Ashton. If Ashton loves him, then Luke is fine with whatever happens.

(The next morning, they walk into school hand in hand. Nobody say anything, but Luke can feel the eyes of his students on him the whole time. During third period, Samantha, a senior Luke has taught for almost four years now, finally has the courage to ask.

“Uh, Mr. Hemmings? I know you don’t really like personal questions, but me and uh, the rest of the class were wondering, because, well, you came in holding hands with Mr. Irwin today and I just-“ She takes a deep breath. “Are you two dating?”

“We’ve been together for five years, actually. I’m thinking about asking him to marry me during the summer break.”

It takes Luke a solid ten minutes to calm his class down again. )

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr [here](http://chefmikey.tumblr.com) :)))))


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